This morning, the Pentagon reported that the US Navy needs to shoot down one of our own US Spy Satellites loaded with toxic fuel before it crashes to earth. Pentagon officials say it needs to take extraordinary measures to blow it out of the sky. I thought about it for a moment and said … this is too good of a story to let go, I have to have some fun with this.

Then I had the idea to connect the New England Patriots and their bad public relations with Spygate. My idea for an illustration was to show the exploding satellite and reveal that it contained the NE Patriots Spying Video Tapes.

The illustration reads: … When and if they shoot down the US Spy Satellite

… My God … It’s the Missing Spygate New England Patriot Video Tapes!

So I called Marty Riskin, a longtime creative partner, illustrator and friend, and told him about the idea. He loved it and sent me this very funny illustration this afternoon. The cartoon appeared in the Back Bay Sun and the Revere Journal. The creative process can get inspiration from anywhere. Marty gave me a ‘With Thanx to John Bergdoll’ credit on the top right. Thanks, Marty, that was fun.

Creative Solutions maintains a strong initiative to further enhance environmental best practices. We seek out and encourage partners who engage in all aspects of sustainability, including recycling, clean energy efficiency, clean technology, and those who are mindful of their impacts on resource consumption, the ecosystem quality and human health.

See our list of organizations, database and listserv groups that are environmentally-preferable and help clients go green.

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Bloggers contribute to their own public relations by publishing and sharing news on the web. A blog builds relationships with readers and other bloggers of similar interests which can lead to high numbers of small audiences. They reflect your own unique perspective as discussions become a two-way street. In effect, blogging becomes an interactive form of branding.

Building communities
Blogs not only give business owners and companies the opportunity to reach their audience, but individuals, small groups, friends, coaches and celebrities as well. It personifies who you are and allows a ‘one-on-one’ connection that can open the doors to many small audiences. From there, it can be shared and develop into communities of bloggers with similar interests.

Talk directly with your audience
The old ways of publishing news is taking a back seat to blogging. No longer does an executive, company, celebrity, or sports figure like Curt Schilling need to wait or hope for good publicity on television, radio, or print; they can now publish and share their own story and talk directly with their audiences.

It’s about cultivating relationships
Business blogging is an excellent way of familiarizing people with your service, expertise and business style. In a competitive marketplace where the usual determining factors are equal, the ‘emotional quotient of a blog’ could become the tipping point that allows people to feel connected with you and your company. Blogging, when properly done, can reveal the human side of you and opportunities to connect with them on a more personal level. It’s your voice and your perspective.

Comments and Feedback
Of course, not everyone is going to agree with all you say on your blog. The best thing to do is to respond to feedback in a professional manner and thank them for their comments. You can shut off the ‘comments welcome’ button and never hear any negative feedback, but don’t you want to hear from your audience? Discussions with your audience is invaluable. Remember, all your responses are posted and duly noted, including the ones you may not agree with.

Blogs deliver with speed
Part of this new paradigm shift is because the blog technology delivers with speed. In a recent PRSA event I attended, writers and bloggers from prestigious publications, like the Atlantic Monthly, revealed that their blog got the big stories first. ‘Speed to the web’ was cited as a major concern.

At the end of the day, blogging is branding. It shows a little bit of who you are, your likes and dislikes, and a peak at of your personality and business style”.

by John Bergdoll, Creative Solutions, Inc.

Blogs have become immensely popular allowing immediate posting and feedback from its community. With blogs you can publish and share individual information sources to large numbers of small audiences quickly.

Key blogging benefits:

• Blogs make publishing and sharing news on the web easy
• Blogs are dynamic and easy-to-update
  
• Develop communities of loyal followers
• Talk directly with your audience
• Cultivate relationships
• Discussions become a two-way street with you audience
• Blogs deliver with speed
• Blogs reflect your unique perspective
• Post videos and link to other videos sites
  

Just what is a blog anyway?
If you’re a blogger who wants people to understand why you have a blog and how it works, this excellent introduction video is for you. (3 minutes)

(courtesy of Commoncraft)

by John Bergdoll, Creative Solutions, Inc.

Don’t Make Me Think author, Steve Krug, made a presentation with the Usability Professional Association (UPA) Boston meeting, held at Olin College of Engineering on January 17, 2008. It was my third UPA event and it continues to impress me with the quality presentations and talented audience.

Web 2.0 is requiring more focus be on effective navigation and clean design. Since web visitors attention is at a premium, designers are advised against ‘design subtleties’… they get lost on a web page. Steve points out that the user interface elements have to “be louder than you like, because visitors move so fast.”

Page titles/identification, or ‘You are Here’ indicators are critical in avoiding user confusing.

Another key point on text links was to ‘deliver what you promise’. In other words, the text links need to deliver what they say they are, otherwise you’ll violate the implied social contract with the user. I’ve seen this happen numerous times because a website designer is trying to economize words or because it visually looks better on the page.

It also was advised that clarity beats out consistency when it comes to page navigation, particularly in secondary navigation schemes. Sometimes you have to pull back and take broad view.

Lively conversation stretched far beyond the scheduled ending time. Thanks for the many tips, Steve, and Chris Hass, the UPA Boston chapter president and Usability Consultant at Bentley College.

by John Bergdoll, Creative Solutions, Inc.

More visitors to your website brings more opportunities for you to increase your revenue. But how do you get more visitors to your website?An optimized website is one way to help improve your rankings with Google, Yahoo, and other search engines.

There are many reasons to make website optimization a priority. For starters, websites are often your company’s first and only chance to get infront of new business prospects. If your site doesn’t show up early in a Google search, prospects may never find you.

Here are some of the key aspects involved in website optimization.

Meta Tags – Metatags, titles, keywords and descriptions all help to improve search engine ratings. Each is critical in determining how your site appears with search engines. Meta tags let you specify the keywords that you want the search engines to use to categorize your site.

Keywords Selection – How do you choose the all important keywords? One way is to try Google Keyword Suggestion Tool which indicates the popularity of any chosen keywords. It provides the estimated number of times that a term/keyword was searched on in the previous month. Another is Overature’s Keyword Suggestion Tool.

Keyword Density – Keywords on a web page are not enough for search engine robots. Ideally, they should also be a reflection of the text that’s on that particular page. Keyword density refers to keywords actually embedded in the text of a given page. The thinking here is – the higher the keyword density the greater the ‘value’ for the visitor.

Reciporical Links – Links from other sites will help draw new traffic to your site. In addition, links to your website on a number of other sites will help increase your site’s ‘relevancy’ with a number of search engines. It is interpreted as improving the ‘value/experience’ for the visitor. Link Popularity is a tool that wil indicate how popular your website is. It will indicate how many links with Google, MSN, and Yahoo. Type in any web site and see how popular it is.

Content Updates – New content, useful tips and noteworthy news articles give visitors a reason to return. Search engine robots will consider a site to be ‘stale’ if it does not periodically refresh with new content.

Search Engines and Online Directories – Promotion of your site to all major search engines and relevant online directories should happen on a regular basis.

by John Bergdoll, Creative Solutions, Inc.

 

In web analytics, “trends are friends” because over time the metrics and analysis point to a direction as a result of the changes you implement (or not). This is the momentum we strive for to build customer relationships that lead to increased revenues.

Definition
Website analytics is a comprehensive assessment of your website’s visitor activity and behavior. It illustrates your site’s strengths and weaknesses and delivers insight on key performance indicators to provide detailed recommendations for improvement.

More accountability with analysis and ROI
At last, website analytics brings metrics to the marketing table with more accountability and ROI. Marketing has caught up with the rest of the business world; murky marketing is no longer acceptable. Smart companies are on board with web analytics to get the best return on their website investment.

Continuous improvement cycle
The core essential elements to website analytics are measure, report, analyze and optimize.

Measure – Use measurement application to collect relevant information.

Report – Compile data into legible reports using key performance indicators, etc.

Analyze – Analyze data with dedicated personnel enabled to instigate changes based on data results. Offer ‘actionable insights.’

Optimize – Modify the site based on insights gleaned during analysis phase.

A dashboard sampling of key indicators

Easy-to-understand reports
Our easy-to-understand visually enhanced reports help you make profit-generating improvements to your website

• Learn more about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site
• Learn which online marketing initiatives are cost effective and see how visitors actually interact with your site. Make informed site design improvements, drive targeted traffic and increase your conversions and profits.
• Improve your results online, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites.
• Help identity gaps in communication

Ask yourself the tough questions
Do you know what your new and returning visitors website visitors are doing on your website? Where do they go, how long do they stay, how many pages do they visit? Is your value proposition strong enough to keep your visitors interested? Are your visitors going to the important pages, and if so, how long are they staying there? Are you getting the response you want – more orders, service inquiries, reaching your goals?

Understand and unearth information on how people interact with your website. Create business value by understanding your website metrics (website data) to make strategic marketing decisions. Superior web analytics combined with experienced and thoughtful insight is a powerful business advantage.

Understanding your business model
The key to identifying metrics that are right for you is understanding your own business model. It’s easy to get lost in too many irrelevant metrics and be distracted. We can help you determine what metrics you really need in order to make smart marketing decisions.

by John Bergdoll, Creative Solutions, Inc.